CH 76

(The Children’s Blessing)

Edited by Silver Wind 

A group of people traversed through the miasma and arrived at the final destination.

With the scattering of the fog, the ghosts in their surroundings dispersed as well, revealing the city’s true appearance.

The streets were bustling with activity, the red and green lights were staggered, and it was as though they had returned to normal reality.

But the porcelain dolls in their arms reminded the players that they were still within the game. 

Shen Dongqing looked over his shoulder. The kindergarten was already concealed in the miasma, and it had disappeared without a trace alongside the miasma.

There was a hospital at the end of the street, and as they walked closer to the hospital, the reactions of porcelain dolls in their arms became bigger and bigger.

Their bodies should be inside this hospital.

There were people coming and going in the hospital, and when a group of people walked into their midst, they did not attract any attention. Under the porcelain dolls’ guidance, the players arrived at the  intensive care unit.

Twelve little children were lying inside, their faces as white as sheets. Their bodies were attached to various medical equipment to preserve their lives.

However, it could be seen that their conditions were less-than-good; the rise and falls of their chest were nearly negligible and it was like they were reaching the end of their lives.

In a small voice, Fang Qi asked: “Are we still in the game?”

Everything here looked too realistic, and it was quite dissimilar from the game copies they had played previously. 

The past NPCs would overcharge them if their words did not conform with their expectations, and they did not have a lot of interactions with the players for the most part.  But the NPCs here felt…. way too humanised.

Zhou Wenyan placed the porcelain doll into the hands of the child whose sick bed was closest to the door, and said: “It’s real, and it’s also fake.”

The game was real while the players were fake.

When all was said and done, the players did not belong to this world. 

As to why the game wanted to trap them in this world, experiencing one survival game after another, was a riddle no one could solve.

Fang Qi and the Blonde Lady were stuck between the states of comprehension and incomprehension as they placed the porcelain dolls into the children’s hands.

Whereas Shen Dongqing did not think that much at all. In his heart, it did not matter if it was real or fake; as long as he could eat and play well, that was enough.

He was simple and unthinking, but he had no worries. 

The Blonde Lady walked to the front of a sick bed and said in surprise: “Come over and take a look!”

When the other players walked over, they noticed that there were a lot of toys piled in the corner and there were dozens of cards stuck on top, expressing their well-wishes with their childish handwriting.

【 All of you have to get well soon, and then play on the slides together — Yang Yang 】

【 Mommy said you will become better when autumn arrives, and I am waiting for the autumn days — Xi Xi 】 

【 We are all waiting for you…… 】

【 …… 】

Every card had a name inscription,  all of them were from their kindergarten schoolmates.

Shen Dongqing said: “It was actually lingering attachment.” 

Ktf mtlivgfc ktb jqqfjgfv jcv vlrjqqfjgfv klat atf cluta lc Ljlveb Blcvfgujgafc kfgf cflatfg utbrar cbg wbcrafgr, yea j ragjcv bo ilcufglcu jaajmtwfca.

Ktfs kjcafv ab gfaegc ab atf xlcvfgujgafc jujlc rb atfs mbeiv qijs abufatfg klat atflg oglfcvr jcv mijrrwjafr. Ktfs kjcafv ab qgbafma atflg oglfcvr rb atfs ifoa yftlcv atf qegfra obgw bo ilcufglcu jaajmtwfca.

When the last porcelain doll was placed down, the game’s voice sounded from the loudspeakers on the wall:

【 You have left Haiduo Kindergarten, and completed the secondary ending 】 

【 Haiduo Kindergarten will be closing temporarily for a level promotion, the scope of the map has expanded, players please devote all your attention to the waiting, it will open again soon 】

A ray of white light flashed past.

Through the white light, Shen Dongqing saw the children on the sickbeds waking up one by one. Their faces were filled with loss, making it evident that they did not remember what had occurred during their comatose states.

* * * 

【 Game closing in progress— 】

【 With a score of S in this instance, you are rewarded with 5000 points, special item drop [The Children’s Blessing], [Broken Key Fragment*1] 】

【 Remaining Player Points: 7890 】

Shen Dongqing laid on his stomach on the bed, going to the system mall to make purchases without restraint before he huddled himself in the bed and chomped on his potato chips. Then, he went to take a look at the special props that had dropped this time around.

The “Children’s Blessing” prop could make the children in the game adore the player after being used. Shen Dongqing felt that it was quite useless so he threw it to the side.

He had a lot of nonsensical props like these and Zhou Wenyan specifically prepared a small chest for him so he could store them. When he opened the chest to have a look, there were quite a few broken key fragments apart from the props.

Since he happened to obtain a key fragment this time around, Shen Dongqing promptly decided to take all of them out, and started to piece them together like he was playing a jigsaw puzzle. 

Speaking of which, the game was truly cunning; the drop rates for the broken key fragments were already ridiculously low, and yet it did not stop the game from dropping the same broken fragment.

After Shen Dongqing tried to piece them together for a long time, there was a part of it that could not be restored, and he only managed to piece together half a key. It was estimated that he could put together the same half key with the remaining pieces.

Biting into his lollipop, Shen Dong scattered the partial key he had pieced together with a wave of his hand.

Zhou Wenyan walked over to sit on the side of the bed. Then, he picked up the broken key fragments patiently and placed them back inside the small chest. 

Shen Dongqing went up to create disturbance by hugging Zhou Wenyan’s arms, which almost placed him inside his embrace.

Hence, Zhou Wenyan could only cease his actions and accommodate his affectionate gesture.

As Shen Dong lay on the upper half of Zhou Wenyan’s body, he raised his head to look at him: “I think I remember something.”

Before he left Haiduo Kindergarten, he saw a string of images. 

Zhou Wenyan was stroking his head in a sporadic manner, and after he heard his words, he asked: “What did you remember?”

Shen Dongqing said seriously: “I used to be an extraordinary and important person!” After saying that, he scrunched his nose and corrected himself: “Important ghost!”

However, that turn of phrase was honestly too strange, and even Shen Dongqing could not resist laughing after he said that.

Zhou Wenyan chuckled as well. “Truly?” 

Shen Dongqing cocked his head: “I was a Great Ghost King at the very least.”

Zhou Wenyan repeated: “Great King?”

His voice has always been pleasant, and now that he was deliberately lowering his voice with the slightest bit of teasing intent filtering into his tone, it made the tips of Shen Dongqing’s ears go red.

Shen Dongqing felt a little embarrassed being addressed that way so he turned his head away and hugged the pillow, burying his head inside. 

Zhou Wenyan could not help but laugh.

Even if Shen Dongqing was a Great Ghost King, he was afraid he would only be a fatuous and self-indulgent monarch who only knew how to eat, drink, and play.

Shen Dongqing’s ears moved and he moved away to breath freely. “I saw it when I was leaving the game. It’s just that the images were blurry and obscured, so I couldn’t see them clearly.”

But in those images, there were quite a few ghosts worshipping him on bended knees with respectful expressions. 

He said: “It seemed like a game copy as well, I saw the two words ‘Ghost City’…”

Zhou Wenyan looked pensive. “Up until now, the number of copies in the game is unknown.”

If they wanted to find the game instance that Shen Dongqing was talking about, it was like fishing for a needle in an ocean.

Shen Dong was not very concerned about it. “If we find it, then we found it. If we can’t find it, we can forget about it.” 

Zhou Wenyan was not as laid-back as he was; he moved towards the cupboard at the head of the bed to rummage for a notebook and opened it.

Shen Dongqing said in surprise: “There’s internet here? Can we play games?”

Why was he unaware of this the entire time?

If there was internet, didn’t he just waste a lot of time that he could have spent playing games? 

Zhou Wenyan replied helplessly, “There’s only an inner web.”

He logged into a forum.

The users in this forum were all players. It was provided for the players to share information regarding the copies and this could also be considered as one of the game system’s humane aspects.

This was the first time Shen Dongqing had heard of the forum, and he leaned on Zhou Wenyan as he looked at the interface on the notebook. 

Zhou Wenyan typed the two words “Ghost City” into the search bar and pressed enter.

Not a single piece of information jumped up.

“Has no one entered this copy?” Zhou Wenyan contemplated for a moment before he made a post, offering rewards for clues related to “Ghost City”.

Less than a second after the post was sent out, however, the post disappeared from the homepage. Zhou Wenyan opened the post archive, and there was naught a trace of it. 

It was like any information related to “Ghost City” could not be displayed at all.

Zhou Wenyan tapped on the notebook with his index finger. “This is interesting.”

Was the copy a S-level?

Or perhaps, was it a level higher than S? 

Shen Dongqing yawned. “Maybe we should forget it.”

Zhou Wenyan closed the notebook, planning to leave it on his agenda list for the time being. He would look for clues pertaining to “Ghost City” when he had the chance later.

When all was said and done, the forum was built by the game system: the content that was blocked or allowed were controlled by the system, and there were quite a few restrictions. However, the player-to-player verbal communication was not under the system’s control, there had to be players who knew about Ghost City.

This was the reason why Zhou Wenyan did not use the forums frequently. 

He did not like being controlled.

* * *

That opportunity arrived very quickly.

Zhou Wenyan was planning to rest for one or two days before entering the game, but he did not expect that on the morning of the second day, Wu Jia would knock on his room door. 

Zhou Wenyan had always been a lone operator in the game prior to this and accepting a little brother like Wu Jia was also an accident. Wu Jia was quite capable as well. He actually managed to fork out some achievements, albeit thoughtlessly. There was a decent amount of new and old players under him and his reputation in the game was not small.

Usually, Zhou Wenyan would borrow some of the game tokens that he had collected.

But those things were void when they got to the bottom of it.

Life and death was impermanent in this game, no matter how much influence a person possessed, nothing was more important than life. 

Wu Jia pushed open the door cautiously and shot a look towards the bed.

Shen Dongqing was still sleeping. His entire person was curled up under the blanket to form a small hill and not a single strand of his hair was revealed.

Zhou Wenyan donned his shirt and walked over on bare feet.

Wu Jia winked at Zhou Wenyan and said soundlessly: “Been working hard?” 

Giving him a sidelong glance, Zhou Wenyan lowered his voice and said: “Go out and talk.”

Ever since Zhou Wenyan and Shen Dongqing were bound together, Wu Jia became extremely perceptive, where he would refrain from going over to disturb them when he did not have any pressing matters. From the looks of it, the matter was not inconsequential this time around.

Zhou Wenyan closed the door behind him gently and the pair went to the study next door.

It was only then that Wu Jia dared to speak loudly. “Boss, why are you playing the games like you’re going for a honeymoon? You’ve been entering the instances one after another without stopping, and I don’t even have time to find you.” 

Zhou Wenyan sat down, crossing his long legs as he placed them on the small side table. With some impatience, he uttered, “If you have something to say, say it quickly.”

“Tsk tsk…” Wu Jia wanted to tease him further, but upon seeing Zhou Wenyan’s demeanour, he sat down in front of him with due haste and switched to a serious expression. “Half a month ago, a group came knocking on our door, saying that they have a S-level copy clue.”

He was supposed to look for Zhou Wenyan half a month ago, but he kept entering and exiting copies without a pause, and he did not even have the chance to meet him.

Zhou Wenyan supported his head with a hand like he was lowering his head to think. “Keep talking.” 

Wu Jia: “It’s just they don’t have enough people and they want to cooperate with us and enter this S-level copy together.”

The chances of a S-level copy appearing was incredibly small, and most of them were created from lower level copies. For example, there was the A-level Haiduo Kindergarten which bore the possibility of promoting to a S-level copy after the completion of the secondary ending.

Prior to this, Zhou Wenyan and those of his ilk were also looking for clues related to S-level copies, but they fell short of success in the end due to the lack of a final effort, and they did not succeed in opening the copy.

Wu Jia: “Presently, no one has cleared a S-level copy successfully, which is why they didn’t have the guts to make an attempt. Nevertheless, they’re not reconciled to just guarding the clue… Boss, have you been in one before?” 

“No.” Zhou Wenyan put down his hand, “I’ve only heard people say that the danger in a S-level copy isn’t in the ghosts and monsters, but…”

The realism.

It was so real that people lost themselves.

This was a nice and bittersweet arc to translate, especially the ‘lingering attachment’ part… 

Either way, it’s a S-level Copy next arc, get hyped!